


The Midpoint of the Tragedy

by rafamarkos5998



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: But also, Gen, Hurt Tim Drake, I don't know how to tag this, I wanted to see if I could make this work, It probably didn't, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Meta, Metafiction, POV First Person, POV Multiple, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Limited, POV Third Person Omniscient, Tim Drake is Robin, Titans Tower au, Writing Exercise, Yeah it's another one of those, and rise like Jason Todd, angry and seeking vengeance on unjust and uninquisitive writers, as a character idea, does not mean I support beating him up, it's complicated - Freeform, no beta we die like robins, they're character concepts as well, tim drake bashing, tw: Tim Drake is not sympathized with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rafamarkos5998/pseuds/rafamarkos5998
Summary: Another Titans Tower AU, yay, so original...Some warnings: This story doesn't treat the idea of Tim Drake with much sympathy. That does not mean I advocate assaulting a kid. Read at your own risk, but I do encourage you to read. (I hate 'don't like, don't read' as a philosophy, I think it encourages writers to stagnate.)EDIT: The original statement here (included below) was wildly insensitive, and I would like to apologize for it. I would like to restate it with more restraint. I've moved the original to the post-story author notes to make it less obtrusive to someone scrolling by.To rephrase - I am filled with a deep disdain for a number of Titans Tower AUs I have seen in the past few weeks because I think they are not well written. I acknowledge that those fics have value to their audience and that those writers have done a great job catering to said audience, but I think they are flawed and would like to criticize them in this format. I am unsympathetic towards said authors in this fic.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 25
Kudos: 20





	The Midpoint of the Tragedy

**Author's Note:**

> This story is not as polished as I would like it to be, but I've been writing it for way too long to be able to make meaningful improvements. I want to put this behind me and get back to my normal writing schedule.

The Zeta tube comes to life with a silent buzz as a leather-clad boy on the cusp of manhood steps into the empty Tower.

"It's not empty. There's a Robin here. Also, I think I became an adult when I trained as an assassin."

_You're still supposed to embody the vibrancy of youth and the tragedy of growing up too fast._

"I'm flattered."

_Thank the writer. He seems to like you._

Yes, dear reader, this is one of _those_ stories.

Odds are, you've either decided to check out already, or you're giving this shitshow a chance. I must warn you, it will only get more insufferable here on out.

"Yeah, I have the feeling that we aren't going to be written in a particularly endearing fashion."

_You don't say. At least you don't have to talk in two different formats._

"Why don't you just rely on context?"

_Because I want to communicate clearly and effectively. This isn't much of a concern for you, given your penchant for blinding rage, but is a concern for me, since I need to narrate the events and make them make sense._

"Well, seems like you're in luck."

 _Yes, I am._ How am I supposed to convey sarcasm when I'm the narrator?

Our brain-dead author should have thought this out a bit more before penning this.

Oh, and Jason has now reached the door of the server room, and is picking the lock right now.

"You don't seem very concerned with narrating properly."

_I'll do that once you're doing something worth commenting on._

"So disabling the security of the most well-protected place in the world is small potatoes to you?"

_You literally have a key. There's not much of a challenge._

"I'm still getting past the redundant security systems designed by the best minds in the world."

_So you're acknowledging your so-called Replacement's talents?_

Predictably, Jason does not respond. Honestly, I should have seen that coming.

"You know, I think this would have been better in the first person."

_It is in first person. It's just that said person is not you._

"Yeah, it's some cocky narrator who thinks he has the right to judge me."

_Damn right I have the right to judge you, I'm the narrator._

"I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to work."

_Well, that is how I want it to work, and I don't see anyone stopping me._

Jason sighs.

If you ask me, he's stalling.

"What the fuck did I do to deserve you, you overbearing wiseass?"

* * *

Timothy Jackson Drake is sitting at the computer, trying to work out the Zippolini murder case while simultaneously working through a mathematics assignment, with a selection of lo-fi beats playing in the background.

"Yeah, I know it's kinda extra, but I do need to show that I'm a hypercompetent but relatable nerd, don't I?"

_If you ask me, it's almost entirely nondescript while still managing to evoke the idea of relatability._

"Eh, I'll take it."

And on cue, the alarms ring out, bathing the entire place in a harsh red light.

"Wow. Ominous."

_Oh, you have no idea._

"I think I do."

The third Robin gets up from his seat with a weariness that does not fit his age, slowly picking up his staff and trudging to the place where his adversary is going to be.

_"You're not going to bother searching?_

"I'd rather skip past the painful part here."

_Understandable. This wasn't written with much sympathy for your physical pain._

"Please, do tell me what form of sympathy was present in this part of my story, in the original telling. I get beaten up by my childhood hero, who goes to great lengths to impress upon me my inadequacy and unimportance."

_Which is all meant to be taken as a reaffirmation of your value and your importance, while also offering the pity and empathetic connection of watching the audience insert being hurt._

"Yeah, but I still get the shit beaten out of me."

_And you get to hold that over your predecessor's head for the rest of his existence._

"I should get to hold it over his head for existence, I don't deserve what he's going to do to me."

_Of course not. And yet, that scene was written by your writers, so..._

A voice echoes through the halls.

"Come on out, Replacement. Don't stall."

Tim sighs and walks on out to face his predecessor.

* * *

"Hello there, Replacement."

"Hi, Jason."

They both have a tired tone in their voice.

Jason scoffs. "Yeah, because I think I speak for both of us when I say that this fucking scene is stupid and shouldn't exist."

"I agree, but I think I have very different reasons for thinking that."

"You don't say... Speaking of which, Replacement, let's see how good you are."

"You're not going to get into a parody of the Robin uniform?"

"Nah, that's just stupid. Let's just go."

At that signal, Tim lifts his bo-staff and gets into a defensive stance, clearly preparing for an onslaught.

Jason does not move.

"I think you're supposed to attack me here, Jason."

"You're not going to run? Or get the jump to disable me, and then run?"

"You're older, stronger, and more experienced. I'm just asking to get killed here."

"I thought you were supposed to be the best Robin who's good at everything and superior to everyone else."

"Yeah, clearly our author doesn't want to give me that benefit."

"Face it, the only reason you had that was to make the audience feel better about themselves."

Before Tim can respond, Jason jumps for him.

I guess we're prolonging the actual discussion, aren't we?

Jason feints a sweep at Tim's left leg and immediately shifts to a kick at his midsection. Tim does catch it with his bo-staff, but the weight difference shows in how he staggers back, barely blocking the blow.

You know, if we get a well-choreographed fight out of this waste of time, I might not be that opposed to it.

Tim pulls his staff back and twirls it to switch to an offensive grip and swing it into Jason's side. He gets about halfway through the motion before having his arm pushed out of position by the upward swing of Jason's leg.

Jason jumps into the air and turns to deliver a backwards jump kick at Tim's chest. The younger Robin angles himself to have the kevlar absorb the blow, but there isn't much you can do to mitigate the force of two hundred pounds of muscle when you weigh but eighty with your armour.

He falls backwards onto the ground. Hard.

He braces for a kick or a punch and attempts to protect his face, but no blow comes.

"Yeah, what do you think, I'm going to kick him while he's down?"

_Yes. I believe the purpose of this... expedition of yours is to kick him down and kick him while he's down until he stops twitching._

"As a matter of fact, I don't want to kill him."

Tim scoffs and goes into a coughing fit. After regaining control of his breathing, he clears his throat and speaks. "Could have fooled me, with how strong those hits were."

"Yeah, Joker hit harder with his crowbar. You've been Robin for longer than me now, and you haven't been crippled by extensive malnutrition in your early years, you should be able to do better than that."

"Thanks, I didn't need you to feed my latent thoughts of inadequacy even more."

Tim grunts in something between pain and discomfort as he gets back up.

Well, it seems you're in luck, dear reader - we might get a semi-adequate fight out of this after all.

This time, Tim attacks, twirling his bo-staff in a vertical circle to aim up at Jason's chin.

Jason sidesteps to the left at the last moment, dodging the attack. He pushes Tim's right arm, unsettling his hold on his staff and putting him off-balance again.

Tim rolls with the hit to buy himself some time to get away and reset, but Jason pulls on the cape and brings him crashing to the ground on his back.

Okay, that looks like a _heavy_ blow.

Tim groans. "You don't say... that _hurt_."

"Well, you can nurse the bruises later. You're not out of the woods yet, Replacement."

"Seriously, why am I losing every single exchange?"

"Weight, experience and determination."

"Well, that does sum it up pretty well."

What he said.

Jason scoffs. "Top tier narration there... can I ask for a refund?"

_I'm not sure that's how this works._

Tim gets back up, taking his time to get back into an offensive position.

Jason raises his left hand and beckons his successor, with a 'come at me' gesture.

Tim obliges, and charges in with a horizontal sweep of the bo-staff. Jason jumps up and twirls over the staff, in a move clearly meant to show athletic prowess in exchange for being at greater risk of retaliation.

A risk that Tim exploited immediately, bringing the staff around fast and bringing it down onto Jason's aerial form in a vertical arc. It is poised to be a strong impact, the one way Tim can overcome his weight disadvantage.

The expected move, again, is for Jason to curl up and try to avoid the hit, or use his legs to attempt a deflection. 

Except that Jason lets the blow land, in full force, and propel him to the ground.

He lands with a strong _thump_ , with the sickening sound of flesh hitting marble.

Tim brings his staff to a resting stance at his right, to try and assess the damage.

That turns out to be a mistake.

Jason jumps back up, right leg outstretched and aimed right at Tim's arm. The one holding the staff.

It is knocked out of his grasp in a sharp blow, and as his eyes flit to it to try and grab it again, Jason is back up, and ready to fight.

Tim barely manages to bring his arms up in time to stop the blow aimed at his nose. He manages to block the hits aimed at his midsection and steps back just in time to dodge the hook directed at his head.

He keeps his guard up, blocking or evading the hits from the ex-Robin, but they're still taking a toll on his strength.

Suddenly, he finds his foot entangled in something, and he trips.

His arms move out of position, and Jason is free to aim a hit directly at his solar plexus.

When the punch lands, he feels the air leave his lungs, and he finally loses balance and tips over to fall back down on the floor.

He lands on his side, with his head hitting the ground with a resounding _thunk_.

Yeah... he's done.

On the third engagement, at that... I wonder if that's the extent of our author's grasp on writing techniques.

"Yeah, rule of three's pretty cliché for someone trying this hard to be profound."

_Are they succeeding?_

Jason cocks his head to the side and ponders over it for a moment. "Yeah, no."

"Yeah, nothing profound about giving me a beating... you wanna finish it off anytime today, Jason?"

"Nah, not interested. Coffee?"

"What?"

"I asked, do you want coffee? Who am I kidding, of course you do, that's literally the only somewhat distinctive thing about your character."

"First things first, I'm plenty distinctive in many ways, and second, Bruce is a coffee whore too."

"Well, I can brew you a pot while I boil some tea. I'm guessing that's part of Alfred's effect on the menu?"

"Yeah, he keeps telling me to drink that instead of the coffee."

"I've changed my mind. You're drinking tea now, Replacement."

"I did not agree to this."

"I saw that you guys have Darjeeling... I learned how to brew it like they do in India, I think it'll be up your street."

"I don't want to drink tea after you've beaten me up-"

"It seems like you've never had it before, so we'll stick to liquor tea for now, but you need to try this with ginger and milk and too much sugar. It's amazing."

Tim sighs.

* * *

"This is... surprisingly good."

"Told you you'd like it."

The two of them are sitting at the corner of the table, neither facing each other nor side by side.

An acceptable compromise in the current situation, I guess.

Jason hums in assent. "Yep, I don't want to look at him."

"And I don't want to expose myself to your violent ass either, so... this is the best we can do."

Tim slurps up a mouthful of tea and swallows it, and turns to Jason with the obvious question.

"Why?"

"Why What?"

_You don't need to be that facetious, Jason._

"You guys are literally not asking an actual question."

"Why didn't you go through with it?"

"With what?"

"Your plan to beat me up."

"Ah."

Jason drinks some of his tea and sets it down with a flourish.

"I don't want to give you free sympathy points with your audience."

_Oooh, harsh._

Tim seems offended.

"Are you trying to say that me being beaten up to within an inch of my life was _good for me_?"

"No, I'm saying that me beating you up was engineered so that I was easier to hate, and so that nobody would have to question why you exist."

"I exist because Batman needs a Robin."

"See, you say that, but that's not exactly true, is it?"

Tim's reply is flat, painfully so. "What are you implying?"

"Not that you're a liar, no. Merely that you, and B, and the rest of the entire hero community, decided to malign my name for their benefit."

"How so?"

"Okay, let us ignore the multitude of other ways Bruce could have dealt with my death if it affected him that much - don't tell me about him being consumed by grief, if the bastard couldn't find it in himself to accept that he made incorrect assumptions about me, I couldn't care less about his feelings. Let's assume, for a second, that Gotham needs Batman, and Batman needs Robin. Why you?"

"What does that mean?"

"Why not Dick? Or some other established hero?"

"Dick refused. He told me to take the name if I wanted it. And I did."

"And what special qualities do you have that ensure that you don't end up dead three years later when the Joker gets bored again? What stops Batman from spiralling into his version of grief then?"

"He doesn't care about me."

"Ignoring the fact that you're the son that he wanted for ages, and giving your self-deprecating ass the license it wants to feel bad about itself, let's assume that's true. For me, there was nobody in the hero community who actually cared about me, since Dick had done an excellent job in making them hate me for being."

"They all regret it-"

"And their regret can go fuck itself in the south-east corners of their rooms. I could not give fewer fucks about it. The point being, you have a team here, that you seem to care about, and who seem to care about you. What happens when you die?"

"I won't."

"And why not?"

"Because I'll be careful. I have them to back me up."

"The implication being?"

Tim does not reply. How mature.

"Very mature indeed. You still need to say it, Replacement."

"...I'm not like you."

Wow, it sounds like he lost a few teeth on that one.

"Ha ha. Very funny." Tim does not, in fact, think this is funny.

"As funny as that is, what does being like me entail?"

"...Not getting myself killed."

"And how, exactly, did I _get myself killed_?"

"...You tried to take on the Joker by yourself."

"Except that's not what happened, was it?"

"...No. But I'm not supposed to know that."

"But that's why you exist, don't you? To take advantage of a lie, to malign my name to cement your place?"

"That's not what it's supposed to be."

"What it's supposed to be is not my problem. But then again, assuming there was much of a point to how you decided to make your name is a bit much. In fact, all you're supposed to be is cheap validation for the audience, so there's little chance of your decisions having _any_ thematic point. What it _is_ , though, is a way to justify your existence by tearing down mine."

"I looked up to you. For years."

"And yet, you defined yourself as 'not-Jason'. You're not angry like I was, you're not impulsive like I was, you're not abrasive like I was, you're not a street brat like I was, you're not overconfident like I was, and you're not going to die like I did."

"There's more to me than that. You know it."

"Thing is, the more that you're speaking of is just there to make you relatable to the audience. You are a self-insert for everyone who read Batman and Robin stuff, and you offer them a chance to believe that they could be heroes."

"And what's wrong with giving people that hope, that they could be heroic? With representing more people?"

"There's nothing more to you than that. You're a good detective, a good leader, a good fighter, a good Robin, just because the team behind you stated it and hoped the audience was uninquisitive enough to just accept it."

"Just because I'm an audience insert doesn't mean I'm a poorly written character."

"No, what makes you poorly written is that you are _nothing but an audience insert, and it's a problem because it drags down other characters, like mine."_

__

"How am I dragging you down?"

__

"I'm not here because it's particularly relevant to my character. The themes of my story are connected to Bruce and the Joker. And yet, there's a chapter devoted to how I came here to beat the shit out of you, just so that your fanbase could feel validated even more. Because there's no time for complex themes and ideas and motivations with you because you weren't made for that."

__

"And this story isn't validation for your fanbase?"

__

"You see me being validated here?"

__

"No, I just see me being brought down, but I'm assuming both are equivalent to the people who like you."

__

"See, that's the thing - you were made to be not like me, so everything I do right ends up being an indictment of you. Maybe someone should have thought a bit harder while coming up with you."

__

"It doesn't change that I mean a lot to people, that I am what they want in their stories."

__

"Yeah, you mean 'a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience'. And I guess it's time we stopped equating agreeable sensations with art, which is meant for much more than that."

__

The alarm in the kitchen rings and Jason picks up his helmet.

__

"It's a hood."

__

It's not important.

__

"It is."

__

"Hood, stop arguing with the narrator."

__

"And do what?"

__

"Leave me on the floor with broken bones. I won't even tell them if you want. Get it out of your system, and be done with it."

__

"I told you, Replacement, I'm not giving you that. We're done here."

__

They both get up in sync.

__

"I can't just let you walk out of here."

__

"Ah. Okay."

__

"You need to - wait, what?"

__

"Okay."

__

"...I didn't expect that."

__

"And to add to the list of things you didn't see coming..."

__

There's a blur of motion from Jason's right, and suddenly Tim's... crashing to the floor?

__

Okay, I did not see that coming.

__

"Wow, I'm surprising the narrator now?"

__

_Yeah, no. I was trying to add to the effect._

__

"Shame. Eh, I'll take it."

__

Jason picks up the unconscious Robin and carries him to his room.

__

It's a long walk, up a few flights of stairs and down a couple of maze-like hallways, but Jason's _helmet_ keeps him from being lost.

__

Oh look, he's sighing. What a guy.

__

"Yeah, look at me, being so generous to my Replacement."

__

_An angel._ Anyone have any success with the sarcasm font?

__

Sadly, it seems I have nothing.

__

Lovely.

__

* * *

__

Jason's laid out Tim in his bed, re-engaged the security, and is now standing before the Zeta tube.

__

He gets into it, and turns to face... you, the reader?

__

How does this work in text?

__

"I have no idea."

__

_Me neither._

__

Well, it's not like it matters, anyway.

__

We all know where this story goes, don't we? Just because this one event is slightly different, doesn't mean we can change the ending.

__

Also, the title needs to be earned in _some_ way.

__

The tube fires up, and Jason's form shimmers. He raises his hand in a dismissive gesture.

__

"Yeah, you can go. We're done here."

__

* * *

__

**Author's Note:**

> Original statement at the end of the summary:
>
>> To everyone who's written a Titans Tower AU in the past... however many weeks, I despise all of you from the bottom of my heart. But since AO3 hates the idea of criticism, and there is no 'thoughtless stereotypical writing' tag, I have no way of filtering you out. So here we are.
> 
> Yeah, that was wrong. My sincerest apologies to everyone who I hurt with that. I meant to criticize the writers for the choices they have made, and it was not well thought out. I won't pretend to like them as authors - I think the choices they make with their writing are deeply flawed and disingenuous - but I would like to state that the criticism is limited to their author personas only.
> 
> As stated before, this was born out of my deep disdain for the Titans Tower AUs that keep popping up when I look for Jason Todd fics to read. And every other story that decides to write Tim Drake with no thought for what his character really represents in a Jason Todd story. And every story that wants to treat Jason as an angry brute but still pretends to be about him.
> 
> But since criticism is anathema to AO3 by design, I have no way of showing how much I despise this trend without having people spout 'don't like, don't read' at me. Hence this fic.
> 
> As always, any and all criticism is welcome. No need to be constructive or kind.


End file.
